U-BOAT A DAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1943, Page 3

U-BOAT A DAY

TURNED OUT BY GERMANS RATE OF DESTRUCTION DISAPPOINTING, ACCORDING TO LONDON NEWSPAPER. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, January 11. The “Daily jyiail” in a leading article on the recent Atlantic convoy battle, says that all that could be claimed after 35 separate attacks was that the Allies almost certainly sank two Üboats and damaged a number of others. This was disappointing. “The account, of the battles gives the impression of hostile submarines popping up all over the place,” the paper says. “To be ‘almost certain’ of only two is an admission that we are not yet able to destroy U-boats at a rate which will eventually master them. As the war spreads and new fronts are opened, greater opportunities are given enemy submarines. Apart from our own supply lines from North America, the United Nations have to maintain important lines of communication to Russia, the Middle East, North Africa, India, Australia and, to Pacific territories, and they are all open to submarine attack.

“One current estimate of the U-boat total is 500. The Germans are turning out a submarine daily. What the Americans are doing in merchant ship construction, the Germans are doing in Üboat construction. The question is whether the measures being taken are adequate to defeat this menace. “An anti-U-boat committee of the War Cabinet was appointed three months ago. The test of its work will lie in results, but we cannot afford to wait long for results.”